[homepage.git] / blog / archive / 2013 / 01 / 01.rss

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                <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from January 2013</title>
                <description>Entries from January 2013</description>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>

        
        <item>
                <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</link>        
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
Launcher and updated the Debian package
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile&quot;&gt;pymissile&lt;/a&gt; to make
sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
also added a &quot;Modaliases&quot; header to test it in the Debian archive and
hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
contribute.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/&quot;&gt;Upstream&lt;/a&gt;
is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git&quot;&gt;gitweb
view&lt;/a&gt; or use &quot;&lt;tt&gt;git clone
git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
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                <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>        
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
general, is that there is a great package management system with the
ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some years ago, I proposed to
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html&quot;&gt;use
the discover subsystem to implement this&lt;/a&gt;.  The idea is fairly
simple:

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
  starting when a user log in.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
  hardware is inserted into the computer.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
  database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
  packages.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
  package, and make it easy to install it.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
discover database to find packages and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.packagekit.org/&quot;&gt;PackageKit&lt;/a&gt; to install
packages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
draft package is now checked into
&lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;.  In the process, I updated the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html&quot;&gt;discover-data&lt;/a&gt;
package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current 
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html&quot;&gt;discover&lt;/a&gt;
package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
/proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn&#39;t upload it to unstable
because of the freeze).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
inserted):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
install the proposed packages by pressing the &quot;Please install
program(s)&quot; button should to be implemented.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if &#39;discover-pkginstall -l&#39;
list the package you would like to have installed when a given
hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
reportbug if it isn&#39;t.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
such mapping, please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
not be installed?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
please send me an email. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
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        <item>
                <title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</link>        
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 2 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx&quot;&gt;LEGO Mindstorm
NXT&lt;/a&gt;.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego&quot;&gt;#debian-lego&lt;/a&gt; (server
irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2012-01-03: A
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners&quot;&gt;project page&lt;/a&gt;
including links to Lego related packages is now available.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
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        <item>
                <title>Lenker for 2013-01-01</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</link>        
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 1 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese den
siste måneden.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-12-07
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article262047.ece&quot;&gt;Myter og
  FUD om fri programvare&lt;/a&gt; av min venn Christer Gundersen som
  kommenterer noen av de påstandene som er spredt via Computerworld
  Norge de siste månedene.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;BankID er et opplegg der utsteder (dvs. banken eller dens
  leverandør) sitter på alt som trengs for å bruke BankID, men har
  lovet å ikke bruke den unntatt på oppdrag fra deg.  Det er greit nok
  for banktjenester, der banken allerede har full kontroll over
  resultatet, men problematisk når det gjelder tilgang til
  helseopplysninger og avtaleinngåelse med andre enn banken.  Jeg
  håper protestene brer om seg.

  &lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;2012-12-11 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/BankID-blottlegger-helseopplysninger-7067148.html&quot;&gt;BankID
    blottlegger helseopplysninger&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;2012-12-07 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.9695027&quot;&gt;-
    Helseopplysningene ikke sikre med Bank-ID&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;2012-12-07
    &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bankid.no/Presse-og-nyheter/Nyhetsarkiv/2012/Papeker-alvorlige-men-kjente-utfordringer/&quot;&gt;Påpeker
    alvorlige, men kjente utfordringer&lt;/a&gt; er den offisielle
    holdningen til de som lager BankID.&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;2012-12-08
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tnp.no/norway/panorama/3419-ntnu-researcher-warns-against-security-of-bank-id-password&quot;&gt;NTNU
      Researcher Warns against Security of Bank ID Password&lt;/a&gt;

  &lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-12-11 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Norske-elever-er-darligst-i-Europa-pa-algebra-7066752.html&quot;&gt;Norske elever er dårligst i Europa på algebra&lt;/a&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-12-11
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Realfagsdodaren-7067173.html&quot;&gt;Realfagsdødaren&lt;/a&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-12-21
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bt.no/nyheter/innenriks/112/--Forventningene-er-for-hoye-2816450.html&quot;&gt;-
  Noen må bli skuffet&lt;/a&gt; - Politiet i Bergen forteller hvor lavt de
  prioriterer hverdagskriminalitet.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-05-03
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://e24.no/jobb/kripos-ansatt-doemt-for-snoking-for-venn/20208585&quot;&gt;
  Kripos-ansatt dømt for snoking for venn&lt;/A&gt; - viser hvor svak
  reaksjonen blir når politiet misbruker innsamlet informasjon.  En
  forvarsel på konsekvensene av nasjonal brev- og besøkskontroll -
  ofte kalt Datalagringsdirektivet.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-12-14
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dagbladet.no/2012/12/14/kultur/debatt/kronikk/jul/ensomhet/24838541/&quot;&gt;Å
  smøre en forskjell&lt;/a&gt; - om ensomhet og jul.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-12-18
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/n-krise-av-gangen_-takk-7072452.html&quot;&gt;Én
  krise av gangen, takk!&lt;/a&gt;


&lt;li&gt;2012-12-17
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/NAV-Et-mangehodet-monster--7072165.html&quot;&gt;NAV:
  Et mangehodet monster&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2011-01-12
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/01/12/kultur/debatt/kronikk/personvern/15027203/&quot;&gt;Pasienter
  uten vern&lt;/a&gt; - forteller litt om hvordan Norsk Pasientregister og
  andre helseregister raderer bort pasienters privatsfære.&lt;/li&gt;


&lt;li&gt;2012-12-19
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Hvorfor-er-barnefamilier-fattige-7073951.html&quot;&gt;Hvorfor
  er barnefamilier fattige?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2012-12-25
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/spaltister/Den-skjulte-minoriteten--konservative-kristne-i-Norge-7075518.html&quot;&gt;Den
  skjulte minoriteten – konservative kristne i Norge&lt;/a&gt; - kronikk av
  Bjørn Stærk fra aftenposten&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;2009-05-04
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://deltemeninger.no/-/bulletin/show/303429_folkebiblioteket-2-0?ref=checkpoint&quot;&gt;Folkebiblioteket
  2.0&lt;/a&gt; - Min venn Sturle om opphavsrett og Internett, i debatt med
  Olav Torvund.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Og et godt nytt år til dere alle!&lt;/p&gt;
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